| Abstract |
The Great Qing Legal Code included various statutes (律), sub-statutes (條例), and provincial regulations (省例), all of which administrators at various levels of government consulted when passing judgement on criminal acts. By examining how statutes and sub-statues were understood and applied, this article attempts to shed light on how the central and local governments of the Qing dynasty negotiated with one another when it came to the interpretation and implementation of the legal code. Particular attention is paid to criminal cases where recidivist theft is involved--cases where the defendant is a repeat offender. The paper concludes that the penal code evolved during the Qing dynasty largely as the result of a constant give-and-take between the central and local governments over how the penal code was to be applied, but that the final authority for making laws rested solely with the central government. |
